Few Problems Expected From Friday's Digital TV Switch

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 12, 2009 - 7:50am.

Washington - Following months of warnings and public service announcements from the government and broadcast industry, all U.S. over-the-air TV stations on Friday were scheduled to shut off their analog signals and begin broadcasting in digital format. Roughly 98% of viewers -- including those who subscribe to cable or satellite services -- were expected to remain unaffected.

Still, Nielsen estimated earlier this week that some 2.8 million households were still unprepared for the transition.

The transition originally was scheduled to take place in February, but was delayed by the federal government, amid fears that millions of American homes were unprepared for the move.

Since then, broadcasters and cable providers have ramped up their information blitz, hoping to reduce the number of viewers who find themselves without a signal.

"With 112 million DTV sets and more than 31 million digital-to-analog converter boxes sold, and 90% of Americans subscribing to a multichannel video provider, the vast majority of consumers are ready," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11742

Published in DMW Daily, June 12, 2009

Previous story: Report: U.S. Video Game Sales Down 23% in May to $863M
Next story: Judge Tosses Patent Infringement Claim Against Nintendo

Email this page

Comments

DTV is a snap

Submitted by Mike Licht (not verified) on June 12, 2009 - 8:41am.

The Digital TV transition is no trouble at all if your cables are correctly polarized. Go to Screen 47 of the DTV Converter Box On-Screen Installation Guide and use the resident GPS to correctly align your antenna for each channel, allowing for local ionospheric conditions, and ARRRGGGHH! Technical reference: http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/tv-d-day-usa/